US allots P18.5-M to support 37 Mindanao projects

MANILA -- As part of its continuing response to the Marawi crisis, the United States Embassy in the Philippines on Thursday announced the launch of its P18.5 million #ForMindanao campaign supporting 37 projects throughout Mindanao led by Philippine alumni of US government-sponsored exchanges.

The projects will address educational enrichment, economic development, and the psycho-social effects of conflict, among other pressing needs in the region, and are expected to impact an estimated 13,500 people.

Since 1948, the US government has sponsored people-to-people exchanges that have built the leadership and professional capacities of more than 8,000 Filipinos from across the nation.

Upon their return, many of these exchange alumni collaborated with their fellow alumni and with the US Embassy to strengthen bilateral relations between the US and the Philippines.

According to the embassy, these youth’s immediate response to the Marawi crisis through their engagement in the #ForMindanao campaign exemplifies the commitment of US exchange alumni to work together to advance the prosperity of all Filipinos.

The embassy noted that within hours of the outbreak of fighting in Marawi, individual exchange alumni and US exchange alumni chapters throughout the country contributed nearly PHP2.2 million in food, hygiene kits, and clothing that assisted more than 20,000 people impacted by the crisis.

One of its campaigns, the #MealsforMarawi, raised PHP85,000 to conduct Ramadan iftars that fed more than 3,000 internally displaced persons (IDPs), while the US alumni chapter in Davao, in partnership with the Rotary Club, delivered food, clothing, and basic medicine to nursing mothers in IDP camps.